Mark Cuban writes about the true business of basketball. The purists are the minority, and in order to survive as a business you must provide entertainment value. The purists hate the arena crew shooting t-shirts and music over the loudspeakers. I am a soccer purist. I attend a game and detest the constant barrage of marketing. If basketball purists are a minority, soccer purists are an even greater minority. I see the kids stretching out their hands for an autograph from a player they do not even know. They try to figure out who he is from his signature. At…
Category Archives: Sports
Mulrooney Soccer Academy
Mulrooney Soccer Academy is a soccer day camp in San Jose featuring professional soccer players as coaches. Richard Mulrooney, Landon Donovan, Craig Waibel, Pat Onstad, and other professional soccer coaches will teach 90 kids per session. Formerly Cannon Mulrooney soccer camps, but with Joe Cannon in Denver it makes sense to rebrand….
Perks for pro athletes
Patrick Hruby of ESPN writes about the perks available to professional athletes. Barry Bonds, for example, lords over four lockers and a $3,000 black leather massage recliner in the San Francisco Giants’ clubhouse; his teammates enjoy single lockers and standard-issue folding chairs Barry’s locker room setup is a big deal here in San Francisco. While other players may receive perks such as a luxury box or a limo ride to every game, it is not as visible as locker room pampering. Stars such as MVP Jeff Kent had to look at Barry’s setup every day….
No more Manchester United autographs on collector’s items
Manchester United has declared a ban on players signing memorabilia. “[T]he players will refuse to sign footballs, shirts, posters, portraits or anything else that could constitute a collector’s item.” The club suspects that dealers are paying children to wait outside the training grounds all day for sale on the Internet….
SBC Park covered in WiFi
San Francisco Giants’ SBC Park will become the first stadium with wireless Internet access, according to a press release yesterday. Fans receive free access for the 2004 season, but SBC plans to begin charging its standard $7.95 daily fee or $19.95 monthly fee starting in 2005, according to the San Jose Business Journal. The Giants, along with partners SBC and Nortel Networks have installed 121 802.11b Wi-Fi access points to provide continuous universal coverage to all concourses and seating areas. [A]ll ballpark suites will be equipped with HP computers, flat-panel displays and wireless accessories that provide internet access coupled with…
Freddy Adu : Just Going Out To Play
Last night’s 60 Minutes featured a segment on DC United player Freddy Adu. Ben Olsen was interviewed as the veteran of the team. Why was Peter Nowak, his coach, and who also started his pro soccer career at a young age, not interviewed? “Freddy’s $500,000 salary from D.C. United dwarfs even the game’s veterans. It has become a cliche that every rookie with a big contract buys his mama a house. Freddy may be the first one ever to do it…and then go home and live with her.”…
Beckham extends contract, gets his own logo
David Beckham was at adidas headquarters in Germany this morning to announce his contract extension and unveil his new logo to appear in merchandise later this year. Similar to Michael Jordan’s slam dunk, the free kick is Beckham’s well known pose….
FIFA 100
To celebrate 100 years of FIFA, the Federation Internationale de Football Association, Pele has chosen 100 living soccer players that represent the best, most outstanding, creative players of their generation….
Major Indoor Soccer League expands to Stockton
The Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL) announced today that it has approved plans for expansion to Stockton, California. MISL teams play 162 games in 6 months….
Ireland ties Brazil in soccer
The Republic of Ireland has just tied world champion and #1 ranked Brazil 0-0 in Dublin. The game was just a friendly, but Brazil did bring their full squad. Brazil’s starting 11 were: Dida, Cafu, Lucio, Roque Junior, Roberto Carlos, Kleberson, Gilberto Silva, Ze Roberto; Ronaldinho, Kaka, and Ronaldo. Ireland was ranked #15 in the world as of this morning according to FIFA….